GREat Oaks Reads

Smart Reads for Smart Students

Month: October 2012

A First Look at Travel, Accommodation, On-Campus Jobs and the Computer Science Course at State University of New York, Binghamton

Whenever anyone starts that new phase of academic life called getting a “Master’s from the USA,” they feel excitement, anxiety and enthusiasm. After going through the strenuous visa process and finally getting your visa stamped, you eagerly look forward to traveling to the USA to start your Master’s course. I know that because I went through exactly the same process of application. My destination was SUNY, Binghampton.

Location, Travel and Transport

Binghamton, which is almost 130 miles from New York City, is well connected to other places by Greyhound buses and other transport systems. After you arrive at the port of authority, the hosts who are assigned to you, generally give you guidance on how to reach their place. I got in touch with students already pursuing their Master’s degrees in Binghamton and got to know that the shortest (and best) way to travel to travel to Binghamton is via road from New York city.

Prepare to be Sentenced!

One of the most important building-blocks of an essay is the sentence. Writing an essay for an Analytical Writing Task in the GRE or the GMAT – or even the TOEFL Independent Writing Task – means that you will be expressing your thoughts in an academic context. So, you need to use sentences that are acceptable in that kind of context, but also effectively to translate your ideas onto the screen

Complex sentences show that you are able to use the language fluently

Clear well-formed sentences make your essay easy to understand

Variety in sentence construction will make your essay interesting

How can you write like that? Simple, click on the link below and find out:

Vocabulary Learning and Revision (to be started preferably 3-5 months in advance)

The largest, most time-consuming component of your GRE preparation is vocabulary revision. Achieving a good level of basic preparation involves getting familiar with around 4,000 words commonly used on GRE test. To really understand a word you need to know its range of meanings, some of its important secondary meanings, its usage (illustrated by sample sentences using the word) and it is often useful to know the roots of the word. Dilip Oak’s Academy has provided two very useful aids for learning and revising these various aspects. Described below is how you can use them both at home and outside.

One of the most important aspects of preparing for reading comprehension in the GRE is preliminary reading – that is, reading to be done before you start tackling GRE RC passages in order to prepare you for the challenges that those passages will throw up.

One challenge that you will face on Reading Comprehension passages is that they tend to be about unfamiliar topics and concepts; and talk about unfamiliar terms and fields. They use difficult phrasing and vocabulary, and complicated sentence structure. The only way to get used to the level of complexity you will find in GRE passages is to read widely.

For GRE and GMAT test-takers, the Analytical Writing Section may sometimes seem to be an uphill climb. With only a half an hour to brainstorm ideas, make an outline and finally type in the entire essay, it may not always be possible to transfer your thoughts to the word processor exactly as you want. The result is often essays that fall short of what the examiner expects in order to award a 4.

The links below are a part of the Online Writing Lab, a project started by Purdue University, which helps teachers and students in developing their English Language skills and rectifying the errors that they make in their essays. They provide valuable suggestions on how to structure sentences correctly and avoid minor errors in English that we as non-native speakers of the language tend to make. Visit them and start improving your Analytical Writing essays immediately.